Five fall faves

I recently posted some of my favorite things about fall, so forgive me if this feels a bit redundant. But I thought I'd go into some more detail about a few of the things that make cooler weather less sucky, at least in my world :)

Fall favorites by verbalmelange featuring western home decor

Obviously, the very first thing that came to mind for me was warm, cozy sweaters and sweatshirts. Ones that are long enough to cover all your business and therefore be worn with leggings. I busted out my sweaters this weekend, but I'm still in the market for a nice cozy, casual sweatshirt like this one. Only not like this one because it's from J.Crew and it's $80.

I also really love dark, vampy nail colors. Not to be a hipster, but I was wearing black nail polish before it was cool. Okay, I had a little punk phase, but the bottom line is I've loved dark nails for the last 10 years and I'll probably never stop loving them.

Growing up in semi-rural areas and on big lots means that fall always brought bonfire weather. Oh man, the smell of smoke and gooey roasted marshmallows...heaven.

As for beverages, I shun the Pumpkin Spice Latte thing. I've never even had one. I'd rather just stick with my delicious, delicious chai tea lattes, please.

And finally, boots. Oh, boots. Boots are the greatest. These two right here? I need both, please.

I've been kind of overdoing it on the shopping lately, so I'm trying to put myself on a clothes-buying ban this month. I'm not doing terribly well, so I was pretty excited to discover Raise.com. Basically, it's a site where you can buy discounted gift cards to your favorite stores, or sell the ones you have but aren't gonna use. (Requisite disclaimer: I was not paid or perked for this post; the folks at Raise simply inspired me to write it.)

I signed up for a free Raise account, and it looks like the discounts vary by store. When I browsed, Macy's cards were selling for 12% less than their value, Target for nearly 4%, H&M for 10%, and TJ Maxx for a whopping 19%. I think I know how I'm going to stretch my clothing budget to the max next month!